Meetings have a terrible reputation. Lots of talk and no action. The "real" issues are never discussed. There's always an "elephant in the room" which only gets bigger as the meeting goes on. When the meeting started its purpose was not clear and when the meeting ended no problems had been solved. So, it should be no surprise that when somebody even speculates that perhaps a new or additional meeting is needed, the response is, "oh no, not another meeting."
The real problem however is not how many meetings you have or how long they last, the issue is whether or not they are productive. Is the cost of staff time to hold the meeting outweighed by the value of the decisions that were made. That value can be in terms of better services or organizational efficiency. Increasingly however, in this pay for performance environment, the decisions that are made in our meetings
need to be monetized; i.e. their financial value. For example if eight people are at the meeting for two hours and their time is valued at an average $30 per hour each, that means that the value of the work done needs to be about $500 in order to say that the meeting was worthwhile financially.
But before we get too arrogant about getting value from meetings, let's remember that the majority of our work requires input from other staff members to complete. So, from that perspective, time spent alone at our desk, could be the real time-waster. Plus we are by nature, social beings; we actually enjoy being with other people and therefore meetings should be much more enjoyable than we usually find them.
So what can we do to make sure that our meetings are productive, interesting and even enjoyable. Here are several suggestions:
1. Introduce variety and physical activity into your meetings. Bring toys to your meetings: nerf balls; play-doh; paper airplanes. Great relaxation and positive mood-inducing tools. Invite guest speakers. Can be an outside "expert" or simply another employee who does not normally attend. Having walking meetings or stand-up meetings. Meet in a different location or arrange the seating in a different way. Allow - schedule - time for "transition". Give 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning for small talk or serious, heavy duty stuff that people need to talk about before it makes any sense to start the regular agenda. An especially important point here is physical activity. By getting up and moving around you are increasing the possibility that people's thought processes will be more creative and productive.
2. Utilize individual differences. It means we need to get to know other committee members; I mean really get to know them. So that we know what they are good at and what are the tasks that they will need help with in order to satisfactorily complete. You need to know their communication styles and their temperaments. You need to know that you will be able to acknowledge a mistake or a failure without getting personally criticized for what was an honest mistake. You need to be able to trust everyone. Work at developing and maintaining trust must be a mandate and a priority.
3. Subject the meeting to a CQI process; always looking to make good meetings better. Take five minutes at the end of each meeting to talk about the following: call attention to especially positive contributions that group members have made to the discussion; thank them for their effort; discuss what went especially well with the meeting (did standing up for five minutes really result in more creativity); admit that some mistakes were made that should not be repeated; discuss whether or not any old habits might have reared their ugly heads again and how they could be blocked next time; have participants jot down their feelings about the meeting; collect their comments and every 3-4 months review them to identify progress that has been made or areas where improvement is still needed.
Finally, good, fun, productive meetings are everyone's responsibility - not just the leader. Yes, strong facilitation is needed but everyone can, and should, identify problem areas as well as affirm positive group performance. Now go and have a great meeting!
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